•JEST,  Andrew  F. 
17079        4r. Sunday  and  Princeton 


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NOTE 


APR  1 0  1915   ^ 


The  subjoined   article  was   mailed   April  6tli  to  the   PliiladelpT 
Presbyterian,    the    Pittsburgh    Presbyterian    Banner    and    the    Cin- 
cinnati  Herald   and   Presbyter  and    a    few   other   papers,   y^ 

AxDREW    F.   Wkst. 


MR.  SUNDAY  AND  PRINCETON 

As  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  a  teacher  in 
Princeton  University  for  over  thirty  years  may  I  ask,  in 
view  of  recently  published  criticisms,  that  you  will  print  this 
statement  giving  some  of  the  reasons  why  Mr.  Sunday  was 
not  invited  to  hold  his  meetings  here  under  the  auspices  and 
with  the  endorsement  of  the  University. 

Let  me  say  emphatically  that  it  was  not  because  Mr.  Sun- 
day's teachings  are  evangelical.  Far  from  it.  Princeton 
was  founded  and  has  lived  on  the  fundamental,  historical, 
evangelical  Christian  faith,  and  with  few  exceptions  no  other 
gospel  has  been  heard  here.  The  attitude  of  President  Hib- 
ben  and  the  authorities  is  in  accord  with  this,  no  matter  what 
passing  difficulties  may  arise. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  grave  reasons  why  Princeton  Uni 
versity  should  not  favor  Mr.  Sunday's  methods  as  likely  to 
do  good  to  orfr  students.  He  has  been  free  to  come,  as  he 
did,  and  our  students  have  been  entirely  free  to  hear  him, 
as  they  did  in  large  numbers, — but  not  on  invitation  nor 
with  the  encouragement  of  the  authorities  of  the  University. 
Why  not  ?     Let  me  state  some  of  the  reasons : 

I.  In  matters  of  religion  there  is  only  one  standard  far 
Christians  and  that  standard  is  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ.  I  gladly  admit  that  Mr.  Sunday  means  to  be  evan- 
gelical in  his  statements.  But  many  of  his  utterances  are. 
to  put  it  mildly,  not  Christlike,  and  some  of  them  are 
travesties  of  the  teaching  of  Christ.  Take  the  following 
sample,  less  vulgar  than  many  others,  v/hich  is  both  a 
caricature  and  a  perversion  of  one  of  the  most  sacred 
scenes  in  the  New  Testament : 

"Mary  was  one  of  these  sort  of  uneeda  biscuit,  peanut 
butter,  gelatin  and  pimento  sort  of  women. 


"Martha  was  a  beefsteak,  baked  potato,  apple  sauce 
with  lemon  and  nutmeg,  coffee  and  whipped  cream, 
apple  pie  and  cheese  sort  of  women. 

"So  you  can  have  your  pick,  but  I  speak  for  Martha. 
So  the  churches  have  a  lot  of  Marthas  and  a  lot  of 
Marys — merely  bench  warmers.     Hurrah  for  Martha !"' 

"So  Martha  was  getting  dinner  and  poked  her  head 
in  the  door  where  Mary  was  sitting  and  said : 

"  'Mary,  carest  thou  not  that  I  serve  alone  ?' 

"Wouldn't  it  make  you  tired  if  you  were  doing  all 
the  work  and  had  your  hands  all  over  dough  and  the 
sweat  rolling  off  as  you  cooked  the  potatoes,  if  your 
big  lazy  sister  was  sitting  doing  nothing?  Then  Jesus 
said: 

"  'Tut,  tut,  Martha,  thou  carest  for  too  many  little 
things.' 

"And  there  was  Mary — remember  Mary — loafing  on 
the  job,  When  I  tell  you  a  good  thing  don't  loaf  on  the 
job." 

What  excuse  can  be  offered  for  this?  It  was  Christ  who 
said  of  Mary  on  that  occasion  that  "one  thing  is  needful: 
and  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part,  which  shall  not  be 
taken  away  from  her."  Mr.  Sunday  knows  better,  and  has 
taken  it  away.  And  if  this  is  not  trifling  with  the  one  vital 
essential  of  Christian  faith,  what  is?  Let  us  leave  aside 
here  the  cheap  wit  by  which  the  holy  scene  has  been  de- 
graded. Would  not  the  vulgarity  have  been  enough  without 
falsifying  the  teaching  of  Christ? 

Moreover,  the  ease  and  apparent  satisfaction  with  which 
Mr.  Sunday  consigns  to  perdition  those  he  denounces  is 
not  becoming.  There  are  plenty  of  coarse  quotations  to 
be  had  on  this  point,  such  as  "rotting  in  hell."  When  a 
man  "preaches  hell,"  at  least  let  him  do  it  with  awe  and 
pity,  and  not  with  words  of  jesting  and  contempt.  Yet 
here  is  one  of  Mr.  Sunday's  milder  statements,  unhesitat- 
ingly sending  to  hell  one-half  of  the  members  of  the 
Methodist,  Baptist  and   Presbyterian  communions : 

"You  Methodists  can  talk  about  infant  baptism,  and 
the    Presbyterians    can    howl    about    perseverence    and 


half  of  the  members  will  persevere  in  hell,  and  the 
Baptists  can  howl  about  water  and  half  of  your  mem- 
bers go  where  you  can't  get  a  drop." 

Do  you  approve  of  this? 

Then  take  these  remarks  about  the  Holy  Spirit : 

"Do  you  think  the  Holy  Spirit  wants  to  look  through 
eyes  bloated  and  red  from  last  night's  revelry  ?  Do  you 
think  the  Holy  Spirit  wants  to  speak  through  a  breath 
stinking  with  limburger  cheese  and  beer  ? 

"Do  you  think  it  wants  to  walk  in  a  pair  of  feet  that 
walk  out  of  the  church  one  day  and  into  the  saloon  the 
next? 

"Do  you  think  the  Holy  Spirit  wants  to  see  out  of 
eyes  that  gaze  into  the  Bible  one  day  and  the  next  day 
into  a  little  cheap-skate  theatre  to  see  a  w^oman  dance 
around  on  her  toes  without  enough  clothes  on  to  flag 
a  hand-car? 

"You  must  clean  up.  Don't  you  think  the  Holy  Spirit 
wants  to  dwell  in  clean  men  and  women?  The  Holy 
Spirit  don't  want  to  take  a  bath  in  beer  and  swim  around 
in  a  pool  of  booze.  Not  on  your  life  it  don't.  Not  on 
your  tin-type." 

I  pass  over  the  description  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  "it." 
But  what  about  the  gross  coarseness  of  parts  of  this  pas- 
sage !  Is  such  low  and  flashy  language  or  anything  like 
it  ever  found  in  the  mouth  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles? 

Take  another  and  worse  instance  where  Christ  in  prayer 
is  turned  to  a  jesting  use: 

"  'And  as  He  prayed  the  fashion  of  His  countenance 
was  altered.'  Ladies,  do  you  want  to  look  pretty?  li 
some  of  you  women  would  spend  less  on  dope,  pazaza 
and  cold  cream,  and  get  down  on  your  knees  and  pray, 
God  would  make  you  prettier." 
Very  funny,  no  doubt ;  and  very  blasphemous. 
Take  anotlier  passage,  lively  and  revolting: 

"I've  always  had  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  with  the 
Irishman  who  went  to  the  priest  and  confessed  that  he 
had  committed  a  murder. 


"'Terrible!'  said  the  priest.  'How  was  it?  Who 
was  it?' 

"The  Irishman  said  that  he  had  gone  out  in  a  boat 
with  a  Jew,  and  that  presently  they  began  to  discuss 
religion,  and  that  presently  they  dropped  the  'dis'. 
Finally  the  Irishman  in  his  anger  overturned  the  boat 
and  drowned  the  Jew. 

"  'Your  reverence',  said  the  Irishman,  'as  the  Jew  came 
up,  I  grabbed  him  by  the  neck  and  said :  Now  will  you 
be  a  good  Catholic?  and  he  said  No.  Then  I  held  his 
head  under  for  a  long  time  and  when  I  let  him  up 
again  I  said:  Now  will  you  be  a  good  Catholic?  and 
he  said  Yes. 

"  'Then,  your  reverence,  I  ducked  his  head  under  and 
kept  it  there  till  he  was  drowned.  I  wanted  to  make 
sure  of  him  while  I  had  him.' 

"I've  sometimes  thought,  almost,  that  it  might  be  a 
Godsend  to  many  a  community  if  it  could  only  be  swept 
by  typhoid  fever  or  pneumonia  or  scarlet  fever  just 
after  a  good  revival  and  before  the  people  had  a  chance 
to  slide  back." 

"Almost"  thinking  it  "might  be  a  Godsend"  if  God  would 
sweep  away  by  a  plague  those  who  had  just  professed  their 
faith  in  Christ!  and  telling  with  "a  great  deal  of  sympathy" 
the  horrible  story  of  an  Irishman  murdering  a  Jew !  Do 
you  approve  of  this  ? 

2.  At  times  Mr.  Sunday  is  irreverently  familiar  toward 
God.  This  appears  clearly  in  the  scene  at  his  Philadelphia 
meeting  on  January  8th : 

"Why  if  I  thought  I  could  get  any  nearer  God  by 
kneeling,  or  get  nearer  to  Him  by  taking  ofif  my  coat, 
I'd  do  it." 

Here  Sunday  suited  the  action  to  the  word  and  tore 
his  coat  from  his  back.  Seizing  it  by  the  collar  in  his 
right  hand,  he  flung  it  around  to  lend  emphasis  to  his 
utterances. 

"If  God  Almighty  can't  bless  a  man  in  his  shirt 
sleeves,"  he  shouted,  "He's  a  mighty  queer  sort  of  a 
God." 


Billy  slipped  into  his  coat  again  and  grinned  at  his 
audience,  who  responded  with  laughter  and  applause. 

And  in  this  remark: 

"Well,  Jesus,  I  don't  know  why  I  should  talk  until 
my  clothes  are  wringing  wet  trying  to  tell  people  what 
they  should  know  if  they  had  a  scintilla  of  brains." 

Here  is  another  sample : 

"When  I  am  at  heaven's  gates,  I'll  be  free  from  old 
Philly's  blood.  I  can  see  now  the  Day  of  Judgment 
when  the  question  of  Philadelphia  and  of  me  is  taken 
up  by  God. 

"  'You  were  down  in  Philly,  weren't  you,  Billy?'  the 
Lord  will  ask  me. 

"And  ril  say  to  Him,  Yes  sir,  Lord,  I  was  there. 

"  'Did  you  give  them  my  message  of  salvation,  Billy?' 

"I  gave  them  your  message.  Lord.  I  gave  it  to  them 
the  best  way  I  could  and  as  I  understood  it.  You  go 
get  the  files  of  the  Philadelphia  papers.  They  printed 
my  sermons,  Lord.  You'll  see  in  them  what  I  preached, 
will  be  my  answer. 

"And  the  Lord  will  say,  'Come  on  in,  Bill ;  you're  free 
from  Philadelphia's  blood.'  " 

Is  this  the  way  the  Bible  speaks?  There  is  no  place  in 
that  book  for  swaggering  impiety.  "Enter  not  into  judg- 
ment with  thy  servant,  O  Lord"  is  the  right  attitude  of  soul 
in  the  presence  of  God.  Mr.  Sunday  is  speaking  impudently 
in  the  presence  of  "the  King  eternal,  immortal  and  invisible" 
to  whom  alone  is  due  "honor  and  glory  forever" — even 
now,  even  at  Mr.  Sunday's  performances.  It  was  Jonathan 
Edwards,  an  early  President  of  Princeton,  who  wrote  of 
these  sublime  words  in  hushed  awe  as  he  gazed  from  his 
window  one  autumn  day :  "As  I  read  them  the  whole  forest 
seemed  to  glow."  No  irreverence  there.  Is  not  the  devout 
fear  of  God  the  "beginning  of  wisdom"  still,  and  is  it  not 
deeply  needed  in  American  life  today? 

3.  Many  of  Mr.  Sunday's  remarks  are  personally  abusive 
or  disgusting  or  slanderous.  Take  without  comment  the 
following  series : 

"Do  you   think  God   wants  you  to  walk  down  the 

5 


aisle  Sunday  morning  in  the  rotten  feet  that  had  been 
out  dancing  the  dirty  tango  the  night  before?  No! 
Then  get  your  rotten  carcass  out  of  the  church." 

"If  a  woman  on  the  avenue  plays  a  game  of  cards 
in  her  home,  she  is  worse  than  any  blackleg  gambler  in 
the  slums." 

"If  a  minister  believes  and  teaches  evolution,  he  is 
a  stinking  skunk,  a  hypocrite  and  a  liar." 

"If  I  were  the  wife  of  some  of  you  men,  I'd  refuse 
to  clean  their  old  spittoons.  I  say,  let  every  hog  clean 
his  own  trough." 

"They  talk  about  the  excitement  of  a  revival  meet- 
ing being  bad  in  any  community.  If  you  say  that,  then 
you  are  a  dirty,  rotten,  stinking  liar!  Did  you  get  it? 
They  never  did  anything  for  Christ  in  their  lives.  Pea- 
nut-headed fools,  that's  what  they  are." 

"A  drunkard  makes  me  sick.  It  makes  me  sick  to  see 
in  a  community  like  this  dirty,  stinking  hell  holes  of 
corruption,  vomiting,  puking,  spewing  out  damnation." 

"Your  wife  has  as  good  a  right  to  line  up  before  a 
bar  and  fill  up  her  skin  with  the  hog-gut  you  do,  as 
you  have." 

"Don't  you  think  that  because  you  wear  whiskers 
and  breeches  that  you  are  privileged  by  God.  She  has  as 
good  a  right  as  you  have  to  walk  down  the  street  with 
half  a  plug  of  tobacco  sticking  out  of  her  mouth  and 
spitting  enough  to  drown  a  jackrabbit  as  you  have." 

"I  wouldn't  clean  out  your  old  spittoon  for  you.     I'd 
throw  it  at  your  head.     Yes,  sir." 
Do  we  need  more  of  the  same  sort? 

4.  There  are  also  some  statements,  fortunately  few — but 
enough — which  are  plainly  indecent.  Take  the  following 
instances  and  remember  they  are  the  words  of  a  professed 
minister  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  spoken  at  a  so-called  re- 
ligious service.     See  if  you  approve  of  them. 

"I  can  understand  why  young  bloods  go  in  for  danc- 
ing, but  some  of  you   old  ginks — good  night." 

"Ma  and  I  stopped  in  to  look  at  a  ball  at  an  inaugura- 


tion  ceremony.  Well,  I  will  be  horn-swaggled  if  I 
didn't  see  a  woman  there  dancing  with  all  the  men, 
and  she  wore  a  collar  of  her  gown  around  her  waist. 
She  had  a  little  corset  on — Oh,  I  can't  describe  it." 

"You  stand  there,  and  watch  man  after  man  as  he 
claims  her  hand  and  puts  his  name  on  her  list.  Per- 
haps that  fellow  was  her  lover  and  you  won  her  hand 
and  you  stand  there  and  watch  your  wife  folded  in  his 
long,  voluptuous,  sensual  embrace,  their  bodies  swaying 
one  against  the  other,  their  limbs  twining  and  entwin- 
ing, her  head  resting  on  his  breast,  they  breathe  the  vi- 
tiated air  beneath  the  glittering  candelabra,  and  the  spell 
of  the  music,  and  you  stand  there  and  tell  me  that  there 
is  no  harm  in  it !     You're  too  low  down  for  me. 

I  want  to  see  the  color  of  some  buck's  hair  that  can 
dance  with  my  wife!  I'm  going  to  monopolize  that 
hugging  myself." 

"Then  Herodias  came  in,  and  danced  with  her  foot 
stuck  out  to  a  quarter  to  12,  and  old  Herod  said,  'Sis, 
you're  a  peach.  You  can  have  anything  you  want,  even 
to  the  half  of  my  kingdom.'  She  hiked  ofif  to  her 
licentious  mother." 

"Why  a  man  with  red  blood  in  his  veins  can't  look 
at  half  the  women  on  the  streets  now  and  not  have 
impure  thoughts. 

Little  girl,  you  look  so  small, 

Don't  you  wear  no  clothes  at  all? 

Don't  you  wear  no  chemise  shirt? 

Don't  you  wear  no  petty   skirt? 

Don't  you  wear  no  underclothes? 

But  your  corset  and  your  hose?" 

No  decent  person  can  read  these  quotations  without 
shame. 

Every  passage  quoted  in  this  article  is  taken  from  the 
official  copyrighted  report  of  Mr.  Sunday's  Philadelphia  ad- 
dresses, published  with  his  sanction  in  the  Philadelphia 
Evening  Telegraph  during  January  and  February.  Their 
accuracy  cannot  be  questioned.  It  is  true  that  these  quota- 
tions are  not  the  main  stock  and  substance  of  his  addresses, 
but  some  of  the  occasional  ornaments,  giving  what  is  called 


"punch"  to  his  discourses.  They  are  things  of  the  son 
singled  out  fur  special  separate  printing  in  the  Evening 
Telegraph,  often  in  large  type,  as  "jolts."     So  they  are. 

On  March  12th  at  the  close  of  ^Ir.  Sunday's  "campaign" 
in  Philadelphia  the  Public  Ledger  of  that  city,  a  journal 
which  has  never  been  unfriendly  to  the  Christian  faith, 
editorially  reviews  the  aspects  and  results  of  his  teaching 
as   follows : 

''Without  minimizing  in  the  slightest  the  good  that 
may  result  from  the  'Billy'  Sunday  campaign  in  awaken- 
ing a  new  religious  interest  in  the  community,  it  can  be 
said  beyond  a  doubt  that  he  has  done  incalculable  harm 
in  certain  directions. 

"Here  are  some  aspects  of  his  teaching  that  are  worse 
than  pagan:  'It's  a  good  thing  I'm  not  God  for  fifteen 
minutes.  If  I  were,  I'd  fill  your  papers  with  obituaries 
and  fill  freight  cars  with  the  dead.'  Xo  one  who  knows 
the  history  of  Jesus  Christ  can  accept  such  a  statement 
as  representative  of  the  One  Who  came  'not  to  de- 
stroy, but  to  save,'  Who  taught  the  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son,  Who  refused  the  aid  of  'ten  legions 
of  angels'  when  His  enemies  were  hounding  Him  to 
death.  Who  prayed  while  dying  'Father,  forgive  them ; 
they  know  what  they  do.'  " 

So  in  the  name  of  decency  and  of  the  purity  and  sanctity 
of  our  Christian  faith  Princeton  University  positively  re- 
fuses to  approve  Mr.  Sunday's  performances  as  suitable  for 
the  edification  of  our  students.  In  times  of  hysterical  ex- 
citement we  think  it  our  right  and  duty  to  stand  firm 
against  all  inflammatory  mob-oratory  in  whatever  field  it 
may  appear.  For  his  quiet  and  sensible  stand  in  this  matter 
President  Hibben  deserves  the  thanks  of  all  friends  of 
education  and  religion. 

Andrew  F.  We5t, 

Dean  of  the  Graduate  School, 

Princeton  University. 
Princeton, 
April  6,  1913. 

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